Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Established by the United Nations in 2005, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked each year on January 27, the date in 1945 that that Allied forces liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Like every year, the United Nations will hold a memorial ceremony today, as well as a series of educational events this month. The UN frames Holocaust remembrance as being in service of dignity and human rights. The UN website reads, “The Holocaust shows what happens when hatred, dehumanization and apathy win. Its remembrance is a bulwark against the denigration of humanity, and a clarion call for collective action to ensure respect for dignity and human rights, and the international law that protects both.”
There is another annual day for Holocaust remembrance, celebrated each spring on the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nissan.
Established by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in 1951, (more than 50 years before the UN and the rest of the world set the international memorial) this day’s official name in יום הזיכרון לשואה ולגבורה, the memorial day for the Holocaust and the heroism. Colloquially we refer to this day as Yom Hashoah, but the full title is appropriate because the 27th of Nissan was the day that Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out. The Israeli Holocaust memorial day focuses not only on the annihilation, the Shoah, but also on the heroism of the Jews who stood up and fought back against those determined to destroy them.
I think these two days, and two ways of thinking about the Holocaust, reflect both challenges and opportunities for Jews, living as a minority and facing antisemitism. On the one hand, today’s UN memorial is an opportunity to nurture positive relationships with allies from other nations, religions, and parts of the world in our shared commitment to making sure that the entire world remembers what happened to the Jewish people, so that such atrocities are stopped before they can be perpetrated again. The Jewish people cannot do this alone, and it is important to stand together with as many people who will join us.
On the other hand, the Israeli memorial day for the Holocaust and the heroism reminds us that we are not powerless to protect ourselves, and the Israeli, the Zionist, answer to prevent such horrors is to memorialize and emulate the heroes who fought and died to stand up for their people.
Israel, the only Jewish state, and the entire Jewish people both reach out to ally with likeminded partners and at the same time do not let others plot our people’s destiny. And a time when many of the voices at the United Nations, the very institution that is holding today’s Holocaust memorial, weaponizes the lessons of the Holocaust into perverse accusations against Israel of genocide, it is as clear as ever that the Jewish people simply cannot only rely on the caring of others to make sure Jews are protected from hate.
Today, we remember those whose lives were taken brutally and senselessly in the Shoah. We are grateful for the Allied troops who fought bravely and liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on this day 80 years ago. And let us commit to continuing both our efforts to build partnerships with people of all faiths and ethnicities to fight against hatred, while also strengthening Jewish institutions, including the State of Israel, to make sure that the Jewish people are never powerless again.